Purdy: 49ers’ season doomed by losses that shouldn’t have happened

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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick gets up after he was sacked in the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

“Well, we do have (answers),” Staley admitted to a few reporters around his locker. “But we’re not going to spill our beans to you guys so that you can write about it. So that’s why you’re going to get those kind of answers.”

Except that by not telling us anything, Staley was telling us a lot. No psychic was required to read between those quotes.

The 49ers have not functioned properly in 2014. And there is a primary reason. The players have not been on board with a certain aspect or certain aspects of the weekly preparation machinery — the machinery that gets them from game planning to game-plan installation to the actual games.

And whether or not you are sympathetic to the way coach Jim Harbaugh’s future status has been blowing in the wind for most of the season, creating an unnecessary distraction … well, guess who still faces the responsibility for those malfunctions on the field?

Jim Harbaugh.

Thus, he was asked in the moments after Sunday’s final play if he could put into perspective what had gone so amiss over the last four months.

Harbaugh chose to respond with one word: “No.” Which he was entitled to do, of course. Sunday, Harbaugh did have his team very prepared. The 49ers played their guts out in defeat.

They did, under the usual tough CenturyLink Field circumstances. Right from the opening kickoff, as usual, the howling customers put the pedal down on their Enhanced Vociferation Technique. The noise was smothering. Yet the 49ers managed it well. They took a halftime lead, sold out physically, competed on every down. Then they got some bad officiating breaks, were beaten at the point of attack a few times by better Seahawks execution and simply fell to a better team.

No, Sunday was not why the 49ers missed the playoffs. You can blame that on the inexplicable losses to St. Louis at home and the Raiders on the road. You can blame it on blowing a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter to Chicago in Week Two.

“That’s three games right there,” acknowledged quarterback Colin Kaepernick, after listing those games as examples of when the 49ers did not “execute and finish.” Kaepernick then added: “If we’re 10-4 instead of 7-7, it’s a big difference at this point.”

If the 49ers were 10-4 instead of 7-7, they would remain solidly in the postseason discussion, finishing up with two games at Levi’s Stadium. But now, those two games will be good only for gossiping about if and when and how Harbaugh will leave the team. That gossip should do very good business inside all of the stadium clubs, as people ignore the games outside.

We all know about the not-so-secret turmoil between the 49ers’ front office and the coach. But even if you buy the notion this was all unfair to Harbaugh and that it had an effect on the team’s psyche, that is no justification for losing to those three teams — the Bears, Rams and Raiders — that possess a current combined record of 13-28.

Is all of this enough to force Harbaugh out, even after three stellar previous seasons? Do you place more responsibility for the collapse on owner Jed York and general manager Trent Baalke? Or on Harbaugh and his coaches? What about the quarterback?

The view here: All of the above. There are no innocent victims. This sour stew had many ingredients. When a restaurant fails to serve the promised menu, you can start with the manager (York) and the chef (Baalke), but the cook (Harbaugh) also bears big responsibility. And the wait staff (players) pick up on all of it.

The players, actually, are the ones with the most frank and sincere outlook. About everything.

“We had a couple of bad games early and thought we corrected it,” Staley said. “Our offense never really clicked. I give this job everything I have. It’s my life. That’s why this sucks.”

True, the 49ers have caught some bad injury breaks. Frank Gore went down in the first half Sunday. Chris Borland went down in the second half. Ahmad Brooks and Carlos Hyde also were banged up and missed some action. So what?

“Every team has injuries,” said 49ers defensive back Antoine Bethea. “So that’s not an excuse. Somebody is going to be injured.”

True, the officiating took a bad turn for the 49ers, especially in the fourth quarter when linebacker Nick Moody was penalized for roughing the passer on a third down Seattle incompletion, extending the Seahawks’ drive that resulted in their last touchdown. Referee Ed Hochuli explained the call by saying that Moody “hit the quarterback in the chest with the hairline” that failed to move upward.

But do not say the 49ers missed the playoffs because of a receding hairline. If the 49ers had been good enough Sunday, they would have overcome breaks. But they weren’t. Haven’t done it most of the season.

When York decided to accelerate the construction timetable at Levi’s to make sure that the 49ers’ new stadium would be finished in time for the 2014 season, he did not plan for one-fourth of the home schedule to have zero playoff implications. If anyone wants to spill the beans on the gory details of why that’s occurred, there will be plenty of eager listeners.

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